CRIME
Chen family pays remittances
The Special Investigation Panel (SIP) yesterday said it had received four remittances from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) family this month from their foreign accounts and it calculated receiving a total of NT$620 million (US$20 million) from the Chen family. The SIP estimated the Chen family now holds NT$3.8 million overseas. The Taiwan High Court had said Chen had to wire all the money back if he wanted to have a better chance of being released. The court on June 11 reduced the life sentences for Chen and his wife, Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍), to 20 years in prison. Chen and his wife were convicted of embezzling public funds, forgery and money laundering during Chen’s two terms as president.
HEALTH
World can learn from NHI
The success of and future challenges to Taiwan’s national health insurance (NHI) system will be a valuable experience to many countries, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said at this year’s Taiwan Health Forum yesterday. Speaking to more than 200 academics in the healthcare field, including about 30 health specialists from 20 different countries, Yaung added that Taiwan’s NHI experience could contribute some ideas to the US health reform discussions. At the forum, international experts will offer their insights on three topics — leadership, health systems and climate change and health — during the yesterday and today in Taipei. The forum is expected to promote international exchange and generate concrete ideas about health policies, DOH officials said.
SUSTAINABILITY
Green thinking encouraged
The government is working to foster an environment that will encourage private companies and local residents to develop green industries and combat global warming and resource degradation, Environmental Protection Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said yesterday. The centerpiece of the government’s plan, Shen said, was to promote the creation of 50 low--carbon communities around Taiwan in two years, six low-carbon cities within five years and four low-carbon living regions within 10 years. To achieve the goals, the government will encourage companies and banks devoted to ecological conservation to open their offices in “low carbon special zones” where electric vehicles will serve as the main form of transport, Shen said at the opening of this year’s Taiwan Industrial Green Industry Show.
CURRENCY
G20 meet boosts NT dollar
The New Taiwan dollar advanced the most in more than a week after G20 leaders pledged to refrain from “competitive devaluation” of their currencies, spurring speculation the central bank will rein in intervention. G20 finance ministers and central bankers ended talks in South Korea on Saturday, vowing to avoid weakening their currencies to boost exports and to rely more on markets to determine foreign exchange values. The monetary authority intervened to counter appreciation last week, according to traders who declined to be identified. “The Taiwan dollar has room to appreciate because of the development in international currencies,” said Henry Lin (新光銀行), a Taipei-based foreign--exchange trader at Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank. “People are watching if NT$30.60 will be breached.”
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods